A bit of a response to the 'if you're flooded you must have been 'stupid' enough to live on a flood plain' thread below …

We live on the side of a steep mountain, miles above the valley flood fields (which work very well at protecting the village below), found last night that our back room as flooded – not through surface water but because the underground aquifers have now gone so far past capacity that the pressure of water has forced it's way up through a concrete floor. Been a pretty sh*t night and day today – clearing stuff and mopping, building a sandbag wall to try and stop the continuously entering water from getting to the rest of the house (it's still coming into the back room). Tired, stressed and not had much sleep.

But, my sympathies go to all of those people round the UK who are having it much worse than us – the emotional impact of losing precious photos or other items, dealing with the filth, sleeplessness etc. And the poor family of the PC who died. So maybe now is the time to extend sympathy to others, even if it's only via an online forum.

And I just wanted to say that the often much maligned Environment Agency have been absolutely superb to us, have gone way beyond what they 'had' to do, and have been a constant support through last night and today. Right, back to some mopping 🙂

It's rubbish when you get flooded, I know 🙁

But at least you got the InterWEB 🙂

Sorry to hear you are flooding Sue_W 🙁 I work in Op's Delivery for the Environment Agency (the one's who get dirty and try to help) and yes we can take a lot of stick but a lot of people don't realise we can be out at all hours (even when not on standby we can be called for emergencies) clearing blockages or helping out in other ways where possible.
I know it may sound trivial but when people do thanks us it does make us feel like we are doing something worth while.

There was a woman on the news yesterday in Cumbria blaming climate change for her house being underwater. Asked how long she lived next to the river she said "5 years, and I've never seen anything like this". I'm sorry but these people deserve little sympathy from me. I feel for them that there belongings etc have been ruined, but she was coming across like she was blaming someone for it. The environment agency/met ofice to a great job in these situations, and it was CLEAR to even me that the pattern of weather systems meant the rivers would flood.

Now, living on a mountain…I used to be a land surveyor and one of our jobs was to check for v small movements in slopes, particularly after heavy rains. Not sure what soil you're on but I hope you're aware that landslides could be the next danger in really saturated soils.

I'm Sue feel even better after reading that.

Kuco – keep on doing a good job – you might not normally hear many thanks, but I bet there's a lot of people who think it, even if they don't necessarily tell you.

so … landslides next is it … well, the house has been here for 300 years, and we had a full strucural survey done which said there was no sign on any building movement … but hey … if it happens I guess we'll be one of 'those people' who 'deserve little sympathy' 🙂 No worries … any 'complaining' would be muffled as I'd buried under a mountain of soil … 🙂

Flooded twice this year and I'm about 350' above the river level and it's about 1.5 miles away, the drains haven't been able to cope back logged then flooded into the garage, luckily I've been able to get out and lift the man hole covers for the sewage and let it spill into there.